meme

[ meem ]
See synonyms for meme on Thesaurus.com
noun
    • a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition and replication in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

    • a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.

verb (used without object),memed, meme·ing or mem·ing.
  1. to create and spread memes: He spends a lot of time memeing and sharing his videos with friends.

verb (used with object),memed, meme·ing or mem·ing.
  1. to make the subject of a meme: cute cats that get memed.

Origin of meme

1
First recorded in 1976; coined by British evolutionary biologist C. Richard Dawkins (born 1941), shortening of Dawkins's original creation mimeme, which was based on Greek mī́mēma “imitation, copy; artistic representation,” but which Dawkins also wanted to look and sound like gene;cf. mimesis

Words Nearby meme

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use meme in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for meme

meme

/ (miːm) /


noun
  1. an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation

Origin of meme

1
C20: possibly from mimic, on the model of gene

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012